Ars Docendi 2025: State prize for excellence in teaching goes to Bernhard Gwiggner
The artist and art pedagogue Ao. Univ.-Prof. MMag. Bernhard Gwiggner has been awarded the state's Ars Docendi Prize 2025 for teaching excellence, in the category research-related and art-led teaching. The interdisciplinary cooperation "tradition2go: zwischen kultur und wahnsinn" ("between culture and madness") was a collaboration that took place in 2023/24 between the Sculpture Class at the Mozarteum University and the Salzburg Museum. The project went hand in hand with the exhibition "Masks, Traditional Costumes, Cult Objects - 100 Years of Folk Culture" at the Salzburger Monatsschlössl Hellbrunn.
Contact
Department für Bildende Künste und Gestaltung
Ao. Univ.-Prof. MMag. Bernhard Gwiggner
bernhard.gwiggner@moz.ac.at
The project was based around a theoretical and artistic exploration of what traditional cultural objects mean for contemporary times, identity and social discourse. As well as coming up with their own artistic interventions in Salzburg's Hellbrunner Park, students developed digital formats: the parcours was expanded using augmented reality and the general publuc invited to actively participate.
The project enabled teacher-training students to gain an insight into the complex processes that take place in the everyday running of a museum - from curatorial decisions and licensing procedures to PR and educational strategies. This led to the creation of a unique learning space that combined artistic practice, academic theoretical reflection and pedagogical relevance.
Bernhard Gwiggner explained:
"Not only did the students further deepen their personal artistic profiles, they also experienced what it means to create art in public spaces and to understand how it interarts with societal processes. These experiences will be invaluable for them later on in their teaching careers."
The project was supported by a highly motivated team of teachers from the sculpture class (Bernhard Gwiggner, Reinhard Gupfinger, Christel Kiesel, Anna Engl) and partners from the Salzburg Museum (Lead: Martin Hochleitner, Director of the Volkskunde Museum: Anna Engl).
The artworks were on display from 4th May - 23rd June in the Hellbrunner Park and were enthusiastically received by visitors to the site. An accompanying booklet, a video documentation and the interactive AR-expansion "tradition2go_extended" ensure that the project will be preserved into the future.
The prize is awarded by the Ministry for Women, Science and Research for an innovative project that shows, for example, how art, academia and education can work together for a better future. This year's call for papers attracted a large number of responses, with 177 applications, over 400 teachers and 53 universities - so great was the interest in the state prize for teaching excellence "Ars Docendi 2025", which has been awarded by the Ministry of Science since 2013.
Biography: Bernhard Gwiggner
The artist Bernhard Gwiggner lives in Salzburg. He studied art pedagogy in Salzburg and sculpture in Vienna. He was appointed as a university assistant for sculpture at the Mozarteum University in 1994; from 2017 until 2020 he was the first person to hold the position "Professor of Artistic Practice" at the Mozarteum University's Innsbruck campus; since completing his habilitation in 2022, he has been Head of Sculpture at the Mozarteum University Salzburg.
As a visual artist, he uses multimedial approaches (drawing, video, objects, installations, art in public spaces) and sometimes participatory art to deal with topics such as National Socialism.